The Heinkel HE 12 was a pontoon-equipped

mail plane A mail plane is an aircraft used for carrying mail. Aircraft that were purely mail planes existed almost exclusively prior to World War II. Because early aircraft were too underpowered to carry cargoes, and too costly to run any "economy class" ...

built in Germany in 1929, designed to be launched by

catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored p ...

from a liner at sea.

Development

The concept was hit upon after

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

(NDL) had carried a

Junkers F.13 The Junkers F 13 was the world's first all-metal transport aircraft, developed in Weimar Republic, Germany at the end of World War I. It was an advanced Cantilever#Aircraft, cantilever-wing monoplane, with enclosed accommodation for four passenge ...

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

aboard the during 1927 to provide joyrides for passengers when the liner was in port. NDL officials realised that a seaplane based on a liner could have a more practical commercial application, taking off with the liner's airmail while still a long distance from port, therefore drastically cutting down time taken for the mail to arrive.

Heinkel Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

designed a catapult, which NDL planned to install on its new liners, the and , and an aircraft to carry the mail. Since the crew of ''Lutzow'' had trouble providing the necessary maintenance for the F 13,

Deutsche Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...

agreed to provide the operational support for the venture, and when ''Bremen'' departed on her maiden voyage in 1929, a single HE 12 (''D-1717'') was carried aboard. The HE 12 was a derivative of the military HE 9 design; a conventional, low-wing,

strut A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension. Human anatomy Part of the functionality o ...

-braced

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

. The pilot and radio operator sat in tandem, open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

s with the mail carried in a compartment behind them.

He 58

A second aircraft, (''D-1919'', ''Atlantik''), was built for flying from ''Europa'', sister-ship of the ''Bremen''. Designated He 58, the second aircraft was slightly larger overall, with increased payload and accommodation for the crew in a side-by-side open cockpit. Power was supplied by a

BMW Hornet A The Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet was a widely used American aircraft engine. Developed by Pratt & Whitney, 2,944 were produced from 1926 through 1942. It first flew in 1927. It was a single-row, 9-cylinder air-cooled radial design. Displacem ...

, initially un-cowled, but later fitted with a full long-chord cowling with cooling slits in the forward face.

Operational history

On 22 July, while still 400 km (250 mi) out of New York City, ''Bremen'' successfully launched the HE 12. When the seaplane was unloaded 2½ hours later, mail from Berlin had taken just 6½ days to reach New York. The next day, in front of a crowd of 3,500 people, mayor

Jimmy Walker James John Walker (June 19, 1881November 18, 1946), known colloquially as Beau James, was mayor of New York City from 1926 to 1932. A flamboyant politician, he was a liberal Democrat and part of the powerful Tammany Hall machine. He was forced t ...

christened the HE 12 with the name of the city. On the return journey, the newly christened ''New York'' launched from near

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

on 1 August, landing in

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

four hours later, in time for the mail to be transferred to another aircraft and arrive in Berlin the same afternoon, 5½ days after leaving New York. Use of the seaplane saved around 20 hours on the westward trip, and 1–2 days on the eastward journey. HE 12 (''D-1717'', ''New York'') flew regularly from until severely damaged in an accident at

Cobequid Bay Cobequid Bay is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and the easternmost part of the Minas Basin, located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The bay was carved by rivers flowing into the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy. The eastern end of the b ...

on 5 October 1931. The He 58, (''D-1919'', ''Atlantik''), continued in service on until replaced by

Junkers Ju 46 The Junkers Ju 46 was a German shipborne catapult-launched seaplane derivative of the W 34, constructed for pre-war ''Luft Hansa''s mail service over the Atlantic Ocean. The first production models were delivered in 1932 and replaced the Heink ...

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

Variants

;HE 12:The initial floatplane catapult launched mailplane, with tandem open cockpits, flown from . ;He 58:A second slightly larger aircraft with side-by-side seats and bigger payload, flown from .

Specifications (HE 12)

References

Bibliography

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External links

"Shot From Ships"
''Air Classics'', Mar 2002 by Cook, John C
"New Catapult Drives Plane From Deck of Liner", November 1929, Popular Mechanics
photo of Heinkel 12 on Bremen catapult
"Catapult For Planes Is Engineering Wonder"
''Popular Mechanics'', September 1930 {{RLM aircraft designations 1920s German mailplanes Floatplanes HE 012 Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1929